In a modern business environment, proper management of documents and relevant dates is essential to success. A key problem in the management of documents and dates is the tracking of documents through time, whether because of a need to follow up on a document at a given time, generate periodic reports, or perform periodic document review such as that required by Sarbanes Oxley.
Numerous document management systems are known in the art. These systems generally allow a user to identify a document using a variety of fields that are then saved in a database that can be searched when a user wishes to retrieve documents pertaining to a particular client, a particular matter, or even a general subject matter. Documents can also be searched by author, date of creation, or any other database field utilized by these systems. The problem with each of these systems, however, is that they require external functionality in order to indicate to a user when a certain document should be reviewed, or when a response to a document is expected, document management systems themselves treating documents as inert and having no significance other than as historical records. Contracts, demand letters, licenses, leases, and other business documents are not inert. They are the engines of business and govern numerous business events such as renewals, responses, elections, options, reviews, and cancellations. For example, in business, it would be useful to have a system that could notify a user that a key date is approaching, so that the user may then search for relevant documents in the document management system and act accordingly. Using conventional technology, this, of course, requires that the pertinent information be entered into a docketing or calendaring system so that the user will be notified of a need at a later date. The step of entering the needed information into a docketing or calendaring system takes time and requires significant labor on the part of workers in an organization. Moreover tedious data entry is redundant and is subject to human error. It is well known that only a fraction of dates are logged because of this time and resource utilization factor and because of the disconnection between and complexity of multiple systems, e.g., calendaring (tickler), document management, and messaging or notification. Therefore, it would be beneficial to attach a reminder to a document while the document is being read in a manner that only takes a few seconds and that automatically captures data already stored about the document, thus maximizing the possibility the date is captured.
Moreover, even if the relevant data is entered, either enormous quantities of information must be entered, or the information will be without meaningful context such that the user still has to look up, retrieve, and review the documents relevant to the event in question. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a document reminder system that seamlessly interfaces with a user's existing document management system, email or messaging system, calendar (tickler) system and other software, to provide a simple and effective means of generating reminders, prompting users, tracking responses to the reminders (if any), and furnishing meaningful information about the event, the document, and the parties, all within a matter of seconds.
Further, it would be beneficial to provide a system that furnishes quick access to the document itself, without a need to search the document management system. It would be further desirable to have a system that not only automatically identifies the relevant document, but also furnishes relevant information to refresh the user's recollection or points to the specific section within the document that has triggered the reminder. Having the reminder directly connected to the document permits the user quickly and easily to take the appropriate action without the need for separate entry of data. For example, a contract may specify that notice of renewal must be sent within a prescribed period of time prior to the expiration of the term of that contract. Knowing that is helpful, but to whom is the notice to be sent? What is the proper address for notice? Must the notice be sent by Certified Mail or other prescribed means? How are specific terms used in this example notice provision defined? Years may pass before the date comes due. In addition, if the date is in a personal calendar, there is always the chance when the person goes looking for the document that the person uses the wrong document or version of the document. By being linked into the document itself, each of these questions can be answered in seconds, all without the need for extensive data entry in a separate database system and without fear that the wrong document or wrong version will be retrieved.
When users are responsible for an action item for a document, for example a renewal date, they will often put that renewal date in the user's personal calendar system, either an electronic or paper calendar. When the users are looking at their calendars, they are able to determine what their workload for an upcoming time period is and what action items need to be taken; however, usually, no other person in the group or even a supervisor has the ability to look at that person's calendar to determine what the upcoming action items are. Even if a supervisor can look at a person's individual calendar the supervisor will also see (and have to filter out) that person's personal events, such as social engagements, birthdays, and medical appointments. Additionally, in order to have an understanding for what an entire group is responsible for, a supervisor would have to integrate many personal calendars. Even if this could be done, which could be problematic, especially for those who insist upon using paper calendars, the integrated or merged calendar would be littered with personal information, and wading through this irrelevant information can be both time consuming and overwhelming to the supervisor. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a document reminder system that allows a supervisor to access a calendar which outlines all action items for each individual in the group and/or the group as a whole, without extraneous personal items. It would also be beneficial to provide a document reminder system where a supervisor accesses one master calendar that has all action items for a particular group of individuals or a particular project and that can be easily sorted by various fields such as dates, clients, matters, and so on.
Another problem of relying, as most businesses do today, on personal calendars is that when the person leaves the organization, the reminders, in many instances, leave too. Even if calendar dates are somehow preserved, the cryptic personal notes the departed employee left behind in his/her calendar may be impossible to interpret. As a consequence, the calendared event may pass without a response or the necessary action being taken. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a document reminder system where the responsibility for action items can be centrally reviewed and be easily transferred from one user to another.